The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-12-22
LEpkosY tNLou1sIANA.

In a recent number of Harper's Mug |
agine, Mrs. Rebecca Harding Davis
takes one of her characters, Mr.. Ely,
into the Acadian country of Attakapas,
Louisiana, she says: Mr. Ely and the
priest lodged in the house of one OF
the petits habitamts. In the evening.
when they were alone, the subject OF
leprosy came up.
1--WE hear at the North" said Mr..
Ely. .svague accounts of the Terre des
Lepreux, which is said to be somewhere
in Louisiana. What truth is there in
them?"
.'They are no doubt greatly exag-
gerated," said Father Nedaud. "a
spurious leprosy, elephantiasis, was so
common among the negroes under the
Spanish Nominations that Governor
Miro founded hospital for lepers
near New Orleans, on the Bayou st.
John. 1t has been gone these many
wears, aud Lepers' Land is now built
| up with pretty houses. 1t was in the
suburb IRENE" !"
The disease is extinct, then?"
ssThere were some cases of genuine
; Asiatic leprosy near Abbeville, In this
| parish, about twenty years ago. An
old creole lady was the first. Her
father doubtless brought the terrible
faint in his blood from France. When
the white scales appeared in her face
her husband and family fled from her.
There was a young girl. daughter of
M M'sieu Dubois, who went to her and
nursed her alone during the three
wears in which she fought with death.
Another of Gods servants, m'sieu!
Four of this old woman's children,
who deserted her, became lepers. The
Young girl who had nursed her, after
she died married a young ternaier, and
lived happily in her little cabin with
her husband and pretty baby, But
one day shining white spot appeared
on her forehead. That was the end.
"She died?'
.sM'sien, after four years. There is
no cure. It surely does not matter to
hsr now by what road God called her
to Him. There haYe been since then
no lepers In this parish esospt in these
tainted families. The real Terre des
lLepreux in Louisiana is now on the
lower Lafourche, below Harang's Ca
nal. The bayou there is turbid and
foul; it flows through malarious
swamps lower than itself. The creole
planters are honest and temperate
folks, but they are wretchedly poor.
They raise only RICE, and live on it and
fish, The wet rice fields come up to
the very doors of their cabins. The
lieprosy which certain families among
them have inherited is developed by
these conditions. Five years ago Pro-
fessor Joseph Jones. president of the
State Board of Health. went himself
with his son to explore the cypress
swamps and lagoons of the lower La
fourche. M'sieu, it is the region of the
shadow of death, He found many
poor lepers hiding there, They were
as dead men who walk and talk.
They could handle burning Goals; they
felt no longer cold nor heat nor pain.
Their bodies were ss corpses. One
man lived alone in hut, thatched
with palmettoes, which he had built
for himself, eating only the rice which
he had planted. No man nor woman
lbad come near him for years. The
Terre des Lepreux extends as far as
Cheniere Caminada. where the bayou
empties into the Gulf"
Mr.. Ely remained silent. though a
torrent of angry queries rushed to his
lips. Why was nothing done to miti-
gate the horrors of such life-in-deathp
How could this priest, man of God,
30 calmly discuss these poor accursed
Creatures from his safe, comfortable
point of vantage, jogging on his easy
going mare from one farm to another?
He batle him presently rather curt
good night. and went to the loft where
lie was to sleep. When he came down
lin the morning. Pere Ncdaud had
igope.
"M'sie4." said his smiling host, ''le
ipere hat lief you bon-mat IL" waving
his hand to the black figure passing
southwark far across the prairie.
..Where is his charge now?"
'sM'sieu-" Gaspard paused mo-
ment. "In hell, / think. 1t is near
Cheniere Caminada, in la Terre des
Lepreax.'
Mr.. Ely walked away from him. and
paced up and down the legea for a
long time.
''God forgive mer' he muttered to
himself.